1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the invention generally relate to methods and systems for generating an annotated network topology, and more particularly, for generating an annotated network topology between endpoints of a network using end-to-end measurements.
2. Description of the Related Art
Network performance and availability are determinants of an application's end-to-end performance and user experience. However, the distributed and decentralized nature of network resources makes performance management a difficult problem.
Some prior art methods and systems use latency annotation tools to determine network performance and availability.
Other related art methods and systems use topology-unaware bandwidth annotation tools. However, such methods and systems provide incorrect estimates of available bandwidth when path sharing occurs in the underlying topology. That is, sharing of paths is not taken into account in the related art methods and systems. In addition to inaccuracy, not accounting for sharing may lead to redundant probes when links fail.
On the other hand, some prior art methods and systems attempt to provide solutions for bottleneck identification on an individual path. However, monitoring traffic can be very intrusive to existing network traffic. Further, such prior art methods and systems use bottleneck identification tools that could flood the network.
Still other related art methods and systems use tools that require network device support (e.g., network router support). However, such tools can only be used by network operators (e.g., telecommunication companies) and/or on the subparts of the network owned by them. Thus, such related art methods would require an unrealistic assumption for most networks.
Therefore, there is a need to overcome the above-identified problems as such prior art tools are not viable for production usage.